BC Predictions for 2013 - Numbers 5 and 6

Lyndon Bird FBCI

Today I will look at our predictions 5 and 6, which have some degree of overlap.

 

Firstly we predicted that “ISO 22301 will start to take off, with certificates issued in more than one country”. Hardly a difficult prediction I know, but still an opportunity to test the often argued premise that many companies had delayed certification to BS25999 because they were waiting for an ISO standard.

 

Whether this is true or not, we will start to find out in 2013, but indications from our research is that the vast majority of organizations will still opt for the nebulous concept of alignment, rather than full certification.

Why the BCI Middle East Awards are important to raising the profile of BC in the Middle East

Nisar Ahmed Khan MBCI

Although Business Continuity Management (BCM) has not been on the boardroom agenda of many organizations in the Middle East, it has, however, still enjoyed a significant presence in the region. It is fact that Business Continuity is emerging as a very important area both for the government and private sector, which is confirmed by the recent initiative of the UAE Government with the release of the UAE BCM Standard AE/HSC/NCEMA 7000:2011 that is set to drive national resilience by getting more and more organizations to adopt good BCM practice.

BC Predictions for 2013: Number 4 - Contingency Planning will become fashionable again

Lyndon Bird FBCI

There has been some puzzled faces questioning our BC prediction number 4 – “Contingency Planning will become fashionable again as a part of a broader understanding of Business Continuity which includes Continuity Capability and Crisis Response”.

Without stealing the thunder of my colleague Lee Glendon who is researching this proposition and will issue a discussion paper on the topic later during BCAW 2013, I think it is becoming obvious that conventional BCM as defined by a management system does not cover the full range of BC thinking. British Standards are working on a Crisis Management Standard (BS11200) and an Organizational Resilience Standard (BS45000) so we can only assume that they agree with us.

What is business continuity (BC)?

Donna Monkhouse, Your BC Eye

As we head towards Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW), the BCI’s annual global awareness raising campaign for business continuity (BC), it makes sense to begin with a simple question:  What is business continuity?

If you look at the main BCI website and take a look at their official BCI Statement, they talk about their vision to promote the art and science of business continuity worldwide.  As a discipline, business continuity can seem like a complicated subject, but actually when we strip it back to its bare essentials, we discover that business continuity is really very straightforward and founded upon good common sense.

In a nutshell, business continuity is about taking responsibility for your business and enabling it to stay on course whatever storms it is forced to weather.   In true war time spirit, it is about “keeping calm and carrying on”.

BC Predictions for 2013 - Number Three: IT will still dominate BC thinking but will be refreshed under the issues raised by cyber threat, big data, cloud and mobility services and social media

Lyndon Bird FBCI

Continuing our review of our predictions for 2013, most people believe that IT will still dominate BC thinking but will be refreshed under the issues raised by cyber threat, big data, cloud and mobility services and social media.  Worries about a myriad of cyber fears will start to move on from its hype phase to a more sophisticated, nuanced understanding of the main issues, threats and vulnerabilities.

Strangely, however, the biggest concern many organizations still worry about is the oldest of all business continuity issues - IT or Telecom disruption. This has had a considerable revival in the past year, perhaps highlighted by the surprisingly long outages being experienced by a major bank and more than one mobile telecom network provider.

Big picture – long picture: the value of horizon scanning

Lee Glendon CBCI

Big picture – long picture¹: the value of horizon scanning

 

How can you ensure that your BCM programme and resources are allocated in a way proportionate to the current and potential threats that the company is and will be facing?
 

That’s a real question one of our members faced last year from her senior management team.  While some folk will be frustrated at the threat-oriented starting point of the question, it is not an uncommon one as many practitioners will confirm.   While ‘risk assessment through threat evaluation’ may provide some assistance with the question posed above, horizon scanning potentially provides a framework to build out the situational picture.  It also provides an opportunity for a proactive stance by practitioners.

Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) 2013 – BC for the risks you can see and the ones you can’t

Donna Monkhouse, Your BC Eye

Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) 2013 – BC for the risks you can see and the ones you can’t
 

18^th to 22^nd March 2013
 

The theme

In today’s world of economic, social and political uncertainty, organizations are confronted with an ever-increasing range of risks to deal with. But there are risks we can see and then there are those we can’t, the so-called “black swans” that swim up on us from nowhere, the high-profile, high-impact, hard-to-predict and rare events. Now more than ever, organizations are looking for a solution to help them manage both types of risk.  That solution is Business Continuity (BC).

But what is BCAW?

BCAW is an annual global event that is facilitated by the BCI and is a key vehicle in raising the awareness of BC as well as showcasing its value as an integrated part of every organization’s strategy.  Every year we select an over-arching theme based on our Members feedback and then build upon this throughout the week.  This year’s theme is Business Continuity for the risks you can see and the ones you can’t.

10 Business Continuity Predictions for 2013 - getting to grips with Business Reslience



Lyndon Bird FBCI



At the start of the year it is always tempting to forward and make some predictions. Like New Year resolutions, however, they are generally much modified as soon as they come into contact with reality. Nevertheless at the BCI we asked our experts what they thought might be important Business Continuity trends in 2013 and got some interesting responses, from which we listed our top ten, and here they are:

10 Business Continuity Predictions for 2013